Phone money transfers impress CRDB

Mobile phone money transfer has proved to be an easier and best mode of
paying dividends, according to CRDB Bank experience.

The bank said during shareholders seminar prior to the 17th annual
general meeting on Friday that records show that out of 19.26m/- dividends paid
through mobile banking all where cashed.

Speaking when presenting a paper during the seminar, CRDB’s Presenter,
Ms Hilda Rwanshane, said the payments through mobile phone experienced a zero
per cent of non-collected dividends compared to other means such as bank
accounts and cheques.

“This is the easiest, safest and fastest means of paying dividends
compared to the traditional means,” Ms Rwanshane said during the seminar.

The bank official said mobile phone transfers reach even the remotest
shareholders without extra costs including travelling to receive and cash the
cheques. However, there are some challenges regarding paying dividends through
mobile phones including limitation of the amount to send.

The amount proven is not exceeding 1.0m/-. “…and if a shareholder does
not have an account with either M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Tigo Pesa and Z-Pesa, the
money is sent back after seven days,” the officer said.

According to the bank spot survey, about 84 of its shareholders
possessed a mobile phone therefore advised them to vie for this mode of
payments, where they need shareholding certificates or a text message from CDRB
and identity—like driving license and voters registration card.

Due to amount limitation and the bank regulations shareholders from
cooperative societies, corporate, institutions—such as pension funds, and
SACCOS cannot be paid through mobile phone.

According to the bank the problematic means proved to be cheque system
where out of 3bn/-of uncollected dividends it accounts for 94 per cent.

“Data shows the most of uncollected dividends was paid using cheque
methods…where 2.7bn/- were still uncollected to the end of the 2010,” Ms
Rwanshane.

“This amount (about 3bn/-), if was circulated in the economy could
assist in economic development,” she said.

The reasons that were given by some of the shareholders who failed to
collect their dividends included high travelling costs compared to the amount
paid, death of the shareholders, frequency work station transfers, and transfer
of the account from one bank to another.

CRDB bank is the biggest bank in the country in terms of assets and
deposits and since it went public has paid almost 49bn/- as dividends of which
almost 3bn/- are uncollected.

Since 1966, the numbers of the bank shareholders
have increased from 738 to 34,000 in 2011.

The bank is listed on Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) and its shares
were traded at 125/- each on Friday. Last year, the bank celebrated its 15th
anniversary and a period of extraordinary and expansion.

In the last financial
year, CRDB registered a net profit of 38bn/-. Its total assets grew by 2.71tr/-
while customers deposits ballooned to 2.41tr/-.